1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for providing conditional access to media programs, and in particular to a system and method for providing for conditional access entitlement and control information to subscribers in a digital video broadcasting (DVB) environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many years, media programs such as television and radio programs have been broadcast to viewers/listeners free of charge. More recently, this free-of-charge dissemination model has been augmented with a fee-for-service and/or fee-for-view model in which paying subscribers are provided access to a greater variety and number of media programs, including video programs, audio programs and the like, by cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasts.
However, while subscriber-based services are readily available in some areas, they are not available on a world-wide basis. Further, in current media program subscription business models, subscribers are typically offered services from a small number of providers (e.g. DIRECTV or ECHOSTAR, or the approved local cable provider) each of which typically provide a large number of media channels from a variety of sources (e.g. ESPN, HBO, COURT TV, HISTORY CHANNEL). To assure that only subscribers receive the media programs, each service provider typically encrypts the program material and provides equipment necessary for the customer to decrypt them so that they can be viewed.
One of the roadblocks to the evolution of such services is the means by which the service provider assures that only paying customers receive their media programs. Existing conditional access systems were initially developed for small markets and grew to larger markets over a long period of time. This growth has attributed to the success of the pay TV industry but has come at some cost to the conditional access infrastructure. Designs initially conceived in smaller systems do not scale well as the once small system with relatively few subscribers became large with millions of subscribers. As a result, the distribution and renewal of Entitlement Management Information (EMI) (typically, in a message called an Entitlement Management Message (EMM)) that are required to renew their services used for viewing has become inefficient. Further, when sending these renewals, current conditional access systems fail to add a cryptographic component to the renewal process, thus exposing the conditional access system to hacking and compromise.
What is needed is a simple, efficient means to securely distribute EMI. The present invention satisfies these needs.